44 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



to the nature of a Christian to abuse men in the manner we was at 

 the other village. There is no Christian nation that suffers their 

 prisoners to be abused, after they have given them quarter, in the 

 manner we have been." 



Pote says that the Indians looked very serious and approved of 

 what he said. They talked among themselves in Indian and his 

 master told him that when they arrived at the village he must take 

 care to keep close by him. Pote says: " I was very careful to observe 

 my master's instructions and warned ye rest to do likewise." Their 

 reception was not reassuring. We will again allow Captain Pote to 

 tell the story in his own words: 



"Tuesday, June 10. We arrive to ye Indian village of Medoca- 

 tike about noon. As soon as the Squaws saw us coming in sight, and 

 heard the cohoops, which signified ye number of prisoners, all ye 

 Squaws prepared themselves with large rods of briars and nettles, 

 etc., and met us at their landing, singing and dancing and yelling, 

 and making such a hellish noise that I expected we should meet with 

 a worse reception at this place than we had at the other." 



The first canoe that landed was that of the captain of the Hurons, 

 who had in his canoe but one prisoner, an Indian of Captain Gorham's 

 company. He was not careful to keep by his master and in con- 

 sequence: "The Squaws gathered round him and caught him by the 

 hair, as many as could get hold of him, and hailed him down to ye 

 ground, ye rest with rods danced round him and wipted him over ye 

 head and legs to such a degree that I thought they would have killed 

 him on ye spot, or hailed him in ye water and drownded him. They 

 was so eager to have a stroak at him, each of them, that they hailed 

 him some one way and some another. Sometimes towards ye watter 

 by ye hair of ye head as fast as they could run, then ye other party 

 would have ye better and run with him another way. My master 

 spoke to the Indians and told them to take the fellow out of their 

 hands, for he believed they would certainly murther him in a very 

 short time." 



The Squaws advanced towards Pote, but his master spoke 

 something to them in Indian in a very harsh manner that caused 

 them to relinquish their purpose. The prisoners and their Indian 

 masters were conducted to the camp of the captain of the village who, 

 at their request, sent to relieve the unfortunate Mohawk from the 

 abuse of the Squaws, and he was brought to them more dead than 

 alive. 



Pote himself did not entirely escape attention at the hands of 

 les sauvagesses de Medoctec as we learn from his journal: 



